Category Archives: Financial Implications

Humans Seem to Need External Energy

Strange as it may seem, humans seem to have evolved in a way that we have a need for external energy, such as energy from burning wood or fossil fuels. While the evidence is not 100% certain, it appears that … Continue reading →

Posted in Book draft, Financial Implications, Introductory Post | Tagged , , , , , , | 138 Comments

Reaching financial limits–What kinds of solutions are available?

We live in a finite world. At this point, we seem to be reaching limits in several different areas: Cheap oil. Our economy runs on cheap oil, but there is a limit to the amount of cheap oil that can … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications, Planning for the Future | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 152 Comments

An Energy/GDP Forecast to 2050

We talk about the possibility of reducing fossil fuel use by 80% by 2050 and ramping up renewables at the same time, to help prevent climate change. If we did this, what would such a change mean for GDP, based … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 111 Comments

How much oil growth do we need to support world GDP growth?

A few days ago, I showed the close relationship between growth in world oil consumption and growth in world GDP. In this post, I will extend that analysis by building a model that shows how much of an increase in … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , | 67 Comments

Evidence that Oil Limits are Leading to Declining Economic Growth

The usual assumption that economists, financial planners, and actuaries make is that future real GDP growth can be expected to be fairly similar to the average past growth rate for some historical time period. This assumption can take a number … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , , , | 56 Comments